Theater of Machines

From Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program

Irve Dell and Brad Kaspari explored the shifting relationship between art and technology. Well known for their precisely designed and exquisitely made sculpture, Dell and Kaspari have worked together since 1993, investigating the poetic and meaningful application of new technologies to sculptural forms.

For this collaborative exhibition, Dell and Kaspari designed giant, interconnected machines operated by human power. A timely and entertaining acknowledgment of the mechanical world at the end of the industrial age, “Theater of Machines” featured several viewer-activated kinetic pieces, including a giant water clock, an aqueduct, a connecting sphygmograp (based roughly on a 19th century forerunner of the EKG) that graphically illustrated “the pulse” of the exhibition's human interaction, and a huge paper shredder and wastebasket that contained the shredder and fallen remains of the exhibition's graphic documentation.

Besides being entertaining, Dell and Kaspari's sculptures referred to more somber issues, such as holistic systems and various paper-shredding scandals of recent American history.